Saturday, February 05, 2005

Some good news

Today we have some good news since I last posted. This morning we met with Dr. Davidson, Mom's chief neurosurgeon, as he was completing his examination. He was very happy with her progress. He said that she was able to open her eyes when asked and moved two fingers when asked. Effectively, this means she is no longer classified as being in a coma.

They have had to up Mom's sedation and morphine because she is being too active and has been banging her et ex-fix (the bar device protecting her broken ankle) against her good leg. She is also currently in restraints to protect her. But we are hopeful that there will be some more changes yet today...

They took a chest Xray today but the nurse did not have the results. Given that her chest tube is not producing much fluid and is producing no air, if her Xrays are good, they may pull the chest tube. This is a very big deal because chest tubes are quite painful. In addition, should they be able to pull that tube, they may be able to take her off the ventilator... which would mean she wouldn't need the sedation... and so on and so on...

The upshot is that we may be able to better assess if it is PAM in there responding to us at this point, or whether she still needs more time.

I am currently working on figuring out how picture posting works here. I am going to post some images from Christmas and then will start posting some from the hospital. I think this is important for everyone so they know where things stand but wanted to give you guys some warning as the images will most certainly be upsetting at first.

Thank you all for your continuing prayers, calls and gifts. The flowers are buoying our spirits and the balloons and teddy bears are doing wonders for Mom and her room.

With love, thanks, and heartfelt gratitude for our luck in having such wonderful friends and family-